The Maids Learn To Breathe
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day fifty-nine: 12 Days of Gleekmas, Day 8: Quinn meets a fellow mom-to-be and makes a friend.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle. Now entering the seventh through ninth weeks, here comes cycle 3 of my gleekathon!_

_I wanted to do something Christmas-y, but not overly so, but then the song was perfect for this. So the stories in and of themselves aren't Christmas-themed, just the thing that inspired them is ;) You'll see :)_

_So presenting... **The 12 Days of Gleekmas - Day 1:** Quinn + "Eight Maids A'Milking"_

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**"The Maids Learn To Breathe"  
Quinn**

Her declaration to Puck, that she would handle things on her own, had really seemed to change her. Knowing it was all up to her now, to see to it that this baby came into the world right, she'd willed herself to start considering the next few months, which would inevitably lead to the birth, and then… Well, she wasn't sure what would be happening there anymore, so much drama left and right.

It did feel odd at first, going into the doctor's office on her own now, after having Finn with her the previous times. Any little worries she may have had, he would take her hand, and… it didn't seem so bad anymore. Her hands were empty now, both of them.

After having checked in with the receptionist, she'd taken a seat, pulling out her history book to study. She had to keep it in her lap, which only gave her a front row viewing seat for the growing bump-that-was-so-much-more-than-a-bump-now.

"By yourself today?" She looked up, seeing the speaker to have been a pregnant woman, a few chairs away. She'd seen her before, at her previous appointments, sitting there. She looked down to her book for a moment, unsure about talking to her.

"Yeah…" she eventually spoke. Her face must have already started talking before she herself did. A few seconds later, the woman had moved to sit next to her. Quinn looked back at her.

"Something happened with your boyfriend?" she guessed.

"It's complicated," she looked back down to her book, fingers drumming on the back of it.

"It usually is," she nodded. Quinn looked back at her.

"He found out he wasn't the father."

"Ah…" the woman nodded slowly. "It's Quinn, right?" She confirmed. "Holly," she introduced herself. "This is Phoebe," she patted her belly, making Quinn smile. "Do you know what you're having?" Quinn looked down at herself. This kind of conversation was new to her.

"It's a girl, too… She doesn't have a name."

"Well, it's early still… We've got four boys already. We've had a girl's name picked for a while, we just never got to use it until now," Holly smirked.

"Wow," Quinn blinked, seeing this was her fifth child. She closed her history book, turning slightly to face Holly. "I'm… not exactly sure how to go about this," she admitted.

"Well, there are ways to deal with that," Holly gave her an encouraging smile.

After their respective appointments, Quinn had gone with Holly, to what she'd find to be a Lamaze class. They were the last of their group to arrive. 'The group' included six other moms-to-be, each of them accompanied by their husbands, boyfriends, or other such coaches to help them along.

"Chris is out of town. I can help you," Holly had assured her. It did help having her there… She didn't feel as freaked out about all of it anymore.

She was happy to have all of them there, really. None of them gave her that kind of look she'd grown accustomed to since she'd started showing, the 'oh look at her, so young…'

Holly was the instructor, and Quinn sat on the ground among the others. After speaking to the group and setting them an exercise, Holly had come to help her. As with any form of learning, she'd listened closely, put it to practice.

After the class was over, Quinn had offered to help pick up and fix the room back up along with Holly. As they were leaving, Holly turned to look at her.

"How are your parents in all this?" Quinn didn't reply – she didn't need to. Holly nodded to herself. "They might come back around, you know?"

"I don't think he… I don't think they will," Quinn shook her head.

"People can surprise you," Holly tried to sound optimistic.

"Yeah…" Quinn didn't seem to believe it all that much, though a part of her did want to. The idea that she could get her parents back was a situation with two sides. Yes, she could get them back if the universe would give her a break, but it wouldn't change what had happened. So she'd either have to live in denial, or she'd live there knowing she'd been brushed aside before. Either way, it could never be the way it used to be.

As they were about to part ways, Holly invited her to return to the class. She also gave her a slip of paper.

"Here's my number. If you need something, if you have any questions, you give me a call, alright?" Quinn nodded and put the paper in her bag.

"Thank you, Holly," she nodded.

"Don't mention it," she gave her a smile. Quinn watched her go, and she felt she had relieved some worries left on her mind.

THE END


End file.
